FOR some teams, July 31 will be remembered as a dread line. The veterans obtained will not flourish and/or the prospects dealt will become impact players.

You can wait two months to see which clubs flourished in the short term or wait five years to see if any of those minor leaguers mature into stars. Or you can enjoy this unscientific, quick analysis of the big winners and losers at the trade deadline:

WINNERS

BAY AREA TEAMS – Free-agents-to-be Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi were not traded. Instead, the Giants and A’s decided to go for October and – as usual – superb GMs Brian Sabean and Billy Beane crafted trades that were praised league-wide.

Sabean brought in Andres Galarraga, whose bat and charisma already have spurred the Giants. Jason Christiansen and Wayne Gomes deepen the pen. Sabean nearly obtained Sterling Hitchcock for Armando Rios and Ryan Vogelsong and instead got a more reliable starter, Jason Schmidt, and a better hitter than Rios, John Vander Wal, from Pittsburgh.

Without touching the major-league roster, the A’s got Jermaine Dye and thus a much-needed righty bat, outfield defense and a symbol that Oakland always will be creative within its tight payroll.

There will be no Subway Series. What about a Bay Series?

COMPETITIVE BALANCE – The Twins and Phillies added payroll from the Mets. Those two teams, plus the Cubs, were last-place finishers in 2000 who bulked up at this deadline as contenders. The Twins and A’s have the lowest payrolls in the majors. Now what is Bud Selig’s negotiating position on competitive balance? With that said, the Twins, in particular, did not spend well. Six weeks ago, they refused to draft supposedly can’t-miss Mark Prior with the top pick because they did not want to give him more than $10 million. But they traded their most-established player, Matt Lawton, to take on Rick Reed and $15 million worth of contract, though he soon will turn 36 and has benefited from working in the NL and a good park for pitchers.

THE LONG SUFFERING – The Red Sox and Cubs, those tokens of perennial angst, might just play the World Series, which would mean one fan base would finally have to stop whining.

One AL GM called Rich Rundles a lefty Mike Mussina and said between him and Tomo Ohka the Red Sox had given two of their best three pitching prospects to Montreal for Ugueth Urbina. But Rundles is in A-ball (a long way from the majors) and Boston has not won since 1918. Urbina aids a pen showing signs of overuse. Plus Boston is re-acquiring injured players Nomar Garciaparra, Carl Everett, Bret Saberhagen and, eventually, Pedro Martinez and Jason Varitek. “Garciaparra changes everything for them with just his energy before you even get to how great he is,” an AL advance scout said.

The Cubs added Michael Tucker, Delino DeShields and David Weathers for depth and Fred McGriff to protect Sammy Sosa. Suddenly, the Tribune remembered it runs a big-market team.

LOSERS

GORD ASH and KENNY WILLIAMS – The GMs of the Blue Jays and White Sox blundered by trading the damaged David Wells for the damaged Mike Sirotka in spring. And they kept on disgracing themselves right through the deadline. Ash was neither imaginative nor aggressive enough to trade Shannon Stewart, Kelvim Escobar, Jose Cruz or Alex Gonzalez, staying status quo with a team an AL advance man called “so dead they are an embarrassment to the sport.”

Williams traded James Baldwin to the Dodgers and thought he had received pitching prospect Jon Berry rather than journeyman minor league outfielder Jeff Barry. Quite impressive.

STEVE PHILLIPS – Sure he is hurt by a dysfunctional ownership situation, particularly Fred Wilpon’s payroll constraints. But those situations existed last year and Phillips took plenty of bows as a genius. He has not taken enough responsibility for the current Met disaster.

He needs the trades he made at this deadline (Turk Wendell and Dennis Cook to the Phils for Bruce Chen and Adam Walker plus Reed for Lawton) to begin a positive cycle. Keep in mind, though, that by trading the productive Reed for a player who can be a free agent after next season, Phillips put the Mets in a position to be blackmailed by Lawton. Also, Phillips still must trade the horrible contracts he gave Rey Ordonez, Steve Trachsel and Todd Zeile. Good luck.

3. THE MARINERS and INDIANS – They may play in the ALCS, but not because of what they did at the deadline. Seattle has craved a bat since spring. Yet, the Mariners were unable to use their extra pitching chips to get a hitter. The Indians, with no payroll space to maneuver, dealt with their recurring nightmare – they desperately need rotation help and didn’t get it.